1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixing mechanism for a storage device, and more particularly, to a fixing mechanism for securing in position and unmounting a storage device without using any tool.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Computers are indispensable to human beings nowadays, whether at home or at workplace. With functions and stability of computers ever increasing, servers nowadays are mostly computers instead of old-time mainframes. A computer typically comprises a monitor, a host computer, and peripherals. A monitor is the screen that a computer user watches at. Peripherals include a mouse, keyboard, printer, scanner, and etc. A host computer deals with computation and storage of data.
A host computer comprises a casing, a motherboard, CPU, memory modules, sound card, display card, and data storage device. A data storage device can be a floppy disk drive, harddisk drive, CD-ROM drive or CD burner. Installation of a data storage device for a host computer intended to function as a server typically involves positioning the data storage device on a positioning frame enclosed by a casing, screwing the data storage device to the positioning frame inside the casing by means of screws and a tool, and shutting the lid of the server to finalize the assembly process.
As mentioned above, the known way of securing in position a data storage device by means of screws and a tool not only makes an assembly process of the data storage device lengthy, but the screws are likely to become missing during the assembly process. For this reason, inventors did propose performing an assembly process of a data storage device without using any tool. Referring to FIG. 1, which is a perspective view showing Taiwan Patent No. M256511 entitled FIXING MECHANISM FOR ELECTRONIC STORAGE DEVICE, a fixing mechanism for an electronic storage device is designed to secure in position a harddisk drive 10. The fixing mechanism comprises a base 110, a plurality of resilient components 130, a plurality of front fixing components 120, and a plurality of rear fixing components 122.
The base 110 carries the harddisk drive 10. Fixedly disposed on the base 110 are a pair of positioning boards 111 aligned in parallel to each other so as to contain and secure in position the harddisk drive 10. Each of the positioning boards 111 is disposed with an L-shaped long groove 111a and an I-shaped sliding groove 111b. Both the L-shaped long groove 111a and I-shaped sliding groove 111b are opened upward. The front fixing components 120 and the rear fixing components 122 are fixedly disposed on both sides of the harddisk drive 10. The harddisk drive 10 is slidable along the long groove 111a and sliding groove 111b by means of the front fixing components 120 and rear fixing components 122.
Resilient components 130 corresponding in position to the outer sides of the sliding grooves 111b of the positioning boards 111 are fixedly disposed on the base 110. The resilient components 130 are resilient enough to limit the displacement of the rear fixing components 122 within the sliding grooves 111b. 
Each of the resilient components 130 is a leaf spring fixedly attached to the base 110 at one end and comprises a fixing end 132 and a bent end 131 bending upward and outward. The fixing end 132 is more or less horseshoe-shaped and is configured to hold the rear fixing components 122 and limit the displacement thereof. The bent end 131 is where an external force is exerted on so as to secure in position and unmount the harddisk drive 10.
The implementation of the fixing mechanism comprises the steps of: aligning the front fixing components 120 of the harddisk drive 10 with the long grooves 111a; pushing the harddisk drive 10 to allow the front fixing components 120 to move downward along the long grooves 111a and then move horizontally along the long grooves 111a; moving the rear fixing components 122 downward along the sliding grooves 111b as soon as the rear fixing components 122 become level with the sliding grooves 111b and pushing the resilient components 130 sideward to allow the front fixing components 120 and rear fixing components 122 to reach the ends of the long grooves 111a and sliding grooves 111b respectively. At the end of the implementation of the fixing mechanism, the harddisk drive 10 is firmly held between the base 110 and the positioning boards 111 and thereby become stationary; meanwhile, the front fixing components 120 and rear fixing components 122 are held by the long grooves 111a of the positioning boards 111 and the resilient components 130 and therefore cannot be reversed and withdrawn. The harddisk drive 10 is blocked from the front, rear, top and bottom and thus the harddisk drive 10 is firmly locked.
A limiting portion 112 is formed in the base 110 by pressing. The limiting portion 112 is peripherally disposed with a horseshoe-shaped cleft 112b. Owing to the horseshoe-shaped cleft 112b, the limiting portion 112 is slightly flexible. Disposed on the limiting portion 112 is a bump 112a having a semicircular cross-section. The bump 112a is configured to abut against the harddisk drive 10 to protect the harddisk drive 10 from vibration.
Although the fixing mechanism enables a storage device to be secured in position without using any screw, the fixing mechanism, when applied to a server-oriented host computer, has the following drawbacks. Considering that the resilient components 130 are disposed on the outer sides of the sliding grooves 111b, and that a lid is disposed above a storage device, the length of the resilient components 130 is inevitably limited by the height of the storage device. Referring to the principle of a moment arm, the relatively short resilient components 130 can be pushed sideward only when subjected to a relatively great force, which is also the reason why the resilient components 130 have to be made of highly resilient material such as steel or have to be in the form of a spring, and in consequence production becomes more expensive and difficult. Furthermore, the fixing mechanism comprises positioning boards 111 each disposed with at least one long groove 111a and at least one sliding groove 111b for positioning and securing in position a storage device, and thus the fixing mechanism cannot work without at least four front and rear fixing components. Accordingly, the fixing mechanism is independent of any tool but is not conducive to reduction in the number of parts and components used.
Accordingly, an issue calling for urgent solution involves developing a fixing mechanism for a storage device so as to solve the aforesaid drawbacks of the prior art.